Ability welcomes supported housing concession

Published: 27 Jan 2016

Ability Chief Executive, David Williams, has welcomed today’s announcement that the government will delay the proposed 1% rent reduction for supported housing for one year while it completes a review of funding arrangements for specialist housing projects.

Ability CEO David Williams

Ability and other supported housing providers, together with the National Housing Federation, has been calling on the government to protect supported housing from the impact of a 1% annual reduction in social housing rents and the capping of housing benefit at the Local Housing Allowance rate for social housing tenants.

David Williams, said: “This is a small step in the right direction. However, it was clear from the debate in the House of Commons today that ministers have little idea of the scale of the problem or the complexity of funding issues facing supported housing providers. We can only hope that their review will provide them with the evidence they need to provide proper long-term protection for essential specialist housing for our most vulnerable citizens.”.

The National Housing Federation yesterday published research that showed that over 50,000 households stand to lose an average of £68 per week in housing support as a result of recently announced welfare changes. These could result in the closure of 82,000 specialist homes.